First-time feature-director Marcel Rasquin has brought the world one of the best sports-related dramas in quite a long time in Hermano. Adoptive brothers Julio (Eliú Armas) and Daniel (Fernando Moreno) are both excellent soccer players. However, while Daniel lives and breathes the sport, Julio leads a double life as a collector for gangsters in their barrio. Things are complicated when they are both offered the chance to try out for a professional soccer organization—before tragedy strikes their home. This was 2011’s Oscar submission from Venezuela, and with good reason: Rasquin has produced a near-flawless effort. It is exciting and tense, and Armas and Moreno are simply spectacular, both as actors and athletes.
ByJacquie Allen